Jonathan Brack

Fields of Study

Middle & Near East: Middle Ages

Middle East, Anatolia, Iran, Central Asia

About

I am an Islamic medievalist studying the Mongol empire and pre Ottoman Anatolia with an additional interest in Mamluk and Ottoman studies. I am interested in the relations between Mongols and Muslim saints (especially Rumi and his descendants) in late medieval Anatolia (thirteenth to fifteenth century) and the construction of authority, legitimacy and kingship after the decline of the Islamic universal Caliphate and the Seljuks of Rum following the Mongol conquests. I examine Hagiographical and Sufi literature and historical writings in Persian, Arabic and Turkish/Ottoman as well as coin finds and endowment deeds. I am especially concerned with apocalyptic and messianic narratives and the process of conversion to Islam of the Mongols and the Turks.